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A most terrible prison

Channel 5 is allowed into CECOT – a prison from hell

June 2026

Richard Madeley was allowed to film inside the most awful prison called CECOT – Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo – in San Salvador and the results were transmitted last week. Despite the restrictions placed on the programme makers, it showed a prison that might have come straight out of some dystopian horror film (movie). The prison is vast and to get about it, he had to travel on a shuttle bus. It has a capacity for 40,000.

Words cannot fully describe the state in which the men are held. Think battery farm for chickens and you get close. Men are effectively warehoused in cells of 100 which contain steel racks three tiers high on which they spend their days. They are not allowed any reading materials and there is no TV. The lights stay on 24 hours a day every day. They have no contact with relatives or lawyers. Trials such as they are, take place on screen with up to 100 defendants at a time. The men will never leave the prison. Further insight is by Human Rights Watch who reported on American nationals held there. They eat the same food each day.

Madeley makes it clear that the men are members of various gangs and have committed a vast number of murders. Some inmates are alleged to have murdered 30 people. San Salvador had a high murder rate with around 16 a day. The drastic measures taken by the president Nayib Bukele has seen this rate drop dramatically. This poses a profound question: that in a state where gangs operate and murder is at a very high level, can the drastic measures and the methods used in CECOT be justified?

Madeley admitted feeling ‘shaken’ by the experience and film of some of the terrible murders could not be shown on British TV. He continued: “It’s obvious that CECOT breaches human rights as we currently understand. It’s a shocking, extreme corner of humanity, but El Salvadorians were writhing under the thumb of psychotic, psychopathic sadists. I wonder if sacrificing civil liberties for the common good is something others would ever be prepared to embrace”. The approach by the President is popular among many in El Salvador who are free of the threat posed by the murderous gang members.

The prison has proved to be controversial in the US and a CBS film was pulled before transmission because allegedly, political pressure was applied. President Trump is reported to be keen on the prison and USA Today revealed a financial deal in which prisoners were sent there.

It is a dilemma. Human rights groups condemn the regime but it has delivered a measure of normality for Salvadorians. Richard Madeley poses this question at the end of his programme. Can such inhumane methods ever be justified?

Sources: The Sun, Cornwall Live, Guardian, Independent, USA Today, CBS

Pic: AFP

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